LEGO builder Pepa Quinn reveals a brütally accurate Eddie Riggs sculpture. Let the pictures do the talking - enjoy the full gallery here.
Source: flickr
Articles
First and (probably) foremost: Grim Fandango and Broken Age are hitting the Switch. Yes, you already own multiple versions of both, but why stop now? Look forward to re-buying them "in the coming months."
And if you want to watch yesterday's Grim Fandango live event, here you go . . .
As part of the E3 Expo that's currently happening, Double Fine are producing a special 20th Anniversary event where Grim Fandango's original voice cast are reuniting to perform scenes from the game, alongside live music being performed by Peter McConnell and Clint Bajakian! Tim Schafer and Jack Black will also be making special appearances, too.
You can watch the event live at 6pm PST (2am London - boo) here: https://www.facebook.com/E3Expo/
DoubleFine have also released more details of upcoming "Presents" projects, like the cool looking Knights and Bikes, and the fun looking Ooblets, and the bonkers lookings KIDS. Not to mention gameplay updates and an XBox One release for Gang Beasts.
You can watch the event live at 6pm PST (2am London - boo) here: https://www.facebook.com/E3Expo/
DoubleFine have also released more details of upcoming "Presents" projects, like the cool looking Knights and Bikes, and the fun looking Ooblets, and the bonkers lookings KIDS. Not to mention gameplay updates and an XBox One release for Gang Beasts.
They probably released some stuff about Psychonauts 2, as well, but I can't find that.
Source: DoubleFine
Nor will he, until he can snag the rights to make Zak McKracken 2. But that is Tim's cross to bear. All you need to worry about is reading the full and rather encompassing interview he gave with GamesIndustry.biz.
Looking back on his portfolio, it's easy to see why he has been added to the ranks of Fellowship winners, alongside Shigeru Miyamoto, Gabe Newell, Peter Molyneux, Nolan Bushnell and more. Although not in name, the Fellowship is viewed by many as a 'lifetime achievement' award - does that mean it's time for Schafer to think about retirement?
"I see it more as a challenge," he laughs, speaking to GamesIndustry.biz at EGX Rezzed. "This sort of award feels like something you get when you're done, but I still feel like I'm working towards figuring out how to make games. Slowly, over time. I don't think I've made my best game yet, and I feel like that's something I want to work towards.
"I don't know what it is yet. I've always wanted to try new things with experimental stuff. I'm trying to structure things at [Double Fine] where I have time to mess about on my own with prototypes. Because most of my days are spent writing Psychonauts 2 or creative directing and helping with someone else's project. But I still like to set aside a little R&D time, just trying new ideas."
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
From the incorrigible Mojo Slack channel:
jason [19:04]
Anyone wanna take this one? Artist Scott Campbell Talks Gaming Trends, Double Fine, & Psychonauts 2
Oh, and this! Reboot Develop 2018: Tim Schafer Talks Psychonauts 2, FIG & Esports
I guess we’ll take that one, then, Jason. ¬
Of course you do. And you're in luck, because that's just what was recorded at something called "EGX Rezzed 2018." I assume that's the name of an expo, though it may also be the model of dirt bike my nephew got for Christmas. For those of us who happened to be washing our hair during Tim's panel, here's a handy Youtube embed of the whole interview:
I haven't watched it myself yet, but reportedly Tim mentions the possibility of further LucasArts remasters, iterating once again that he'd insist on the original creators being involved. Hasn't Brian Moriarty been pretty upfront about wanting revisit Loom? Anyway, Tim evidently talks a bunch about Psychonauts as well, so it's sure to be a worthy listen all the way around.
Me, I don’t get the whole "play a game with a torture device on your head" thing, but if you do, you no longer need a PS4 to play Rhombus of Ruin. Starting right now you can play the game on the HTC Vive through Steam, and also through Oculus Home.
Here at Mojo, we’re waiting for Jennifer’s review, a mere year plus change later. ;
Business Insider published a new interview with Tim about various things Double Fine, but mostly Psychonauts.
What are your hopes for Psychonauts? "Rhombus of Ruin," "Psychonauts 2," but also the franchise in general?
Well it's definitely a world that has a lot of emotional hold for us, because we really love that world and those characters, and that feels very real to us. The first game, when it launched, it did okay, but when we got the rights back to it [in June 2011], we were able to sell more and more, and it sold more in the last five years than it did in its first five years. And I think that's shown the audience has grown kind of organically over the last 10 years, so we have hopes it'll reach more people than it did the first time. But I think what we're really concentrating on now is more of the "If they build it, they will come" philosophy: Just make a great game, make it true to Psychonauts, and if you make a great game, people will come play it.
Source: Business Insider
Not satisfied with taking home a GDC Lifetime Achievement Award, Schafer will be the recipient of the "BAFTA Fellowship Award". Only a handful of game-industry personalities have been honored with the award, which usually is reserved for those in the movie business, over the last 37 years. Hitchcock was the inaugural recipient, so those are the circles Tim is rolling in these days.
We’d congratulate him, but honestly, this is such an everyday occurrence for him now, that it’s just another day on the job.
I mean, I'm sure you saw the backer email, but in case you didn't, you heard it here first: Psychonauts 2 is now aiming for a 2019 release, a little later than had been originally speculated. You know, as Psychonauts games are wont to do.
DoubleFine said: "Now we are in full swing, we know a lot more about the size and scope of the game we are going to make, how long it will take us to make it, and the amount of time we need to make it be great. From those projections, we know that Psychonauts 2 will not be shipping in 2018, like we originally estimated when we published the Fig campaign two years ago."
It is what it is, and if this will give us that always sought-after extra polish then it's probably not a bad thing.
You can see the entire update, along with lots of behind-the-scenes information, and a whole festive video update on the completely public Fig project page.
Source: Double Fine
Having headlined Brütal Legend and getting summoned back for Broken Age, Jack Black has become something of a regular for Double Fine. The trend will continue with Psychonauts 2, which Black announced at something called The Game Awards.
No information has been divulged on the character Black will be voicing, but experts speculate that it won't be Mr. Pokeylope.
Source: IGN
You can never play Psychonauts on enough platforms, so it just makes sense to pop your old Xbox disc into your Xbox One and give it a whirl there too. That's right, Psychonauts is among the first lucky 13 games to be playable on the One. And if you have lost your disc, you can even buy it for $9.99 digitally -- why wouldn't you want a tenth copy of the game?
The game apparently both looks and runs better, too, which is always a bonus. The feature will be available tomorrow.
It’s Rocktober and it’s Friday the 13th, so what better way to celebrate than with a game of Brütal Legend against Double Fine? Join them at their YouTube channel at noon PST and you could be picked to compete against Tim himself. Or you could just watch like the voyeur you are. Anyway, noon pacific!
I mean, come on! Gameplay! McConnell! Goats! You got this sent to your email, and then you ignored it, didn't you?! Make up for it all by watching it, all now! Exclamation mark!
That's right, as I type this you have 1 day, 23 hours, 30 minutes, and 22 seconds to grab your free copy of Psychonauts from GOG Steam! So I had a few sips from the flask this morning; sue me. Because, can you really ever have too many copies? Of course you can't.
Tim is the subject of a new article on Medium in which he speaks about the oft-documented strain - and, perhaps, the needlessness - of crunch mode, a period at the end (or sometimes throughout) of a game development cycle when teams work around the clock to meet looming deadlines.
Speaking about his experiences at both LucasArts and Double Fine, Tim's thoughts on the subject are sobering and even personal, such as when he relates how the passionate and relentless climate at LucasArts during his early days at the studio brought consequences at home:
Schafer saw the crunch periods become more demanding as time went on, and it wasn’t long before he experienced the heavy price of that kind of working culture. His first marriage, he said, collapsed after just a year.
“You don’t realize until it has happened that you’re doing all this damage to your personal life by staying at work all the time,” he said. “You can mentally put the rest of the world on hold, but the rest of the world can’t necessarily be put on hold by you. I was so gung-ho about it. If you think someone will wait for you and tolerate you not being around… people move on.”
Even then, with a relationship falling apart around him, the work came first. The rewards were just big enough, and the aura of George Lucas radiant enough, that it felt impossible to leave. Schafer only met Lucas three times in the 10 years he worked for him, but says his presence was felt in the craftsmanship and artistry of the house and its grounds. The attention to detail exuded an air of quality that reminded everyone that things needed to be done right.
Source: Medum
PC Gamer published an interview with Tim about Full Throttle in their June issue, but you don't buy magazines anymore, so you didn't read it. At least not until its ink exclusivity ended and it wound up online, which is now.
At the time a LucasArts adventure was expected to sell around 100,000 copies, but Full Throttle sold over a million. And now, 22 years later, the game has been re-released with remastered graphics and audio. I ask the game’s writer/director Tim Schafer what it’s like going back to something he made when he was in his early 20s.
“It’s been interesting looking at how I wrote dialogue back then based on my life experiences at the time, and how I interpret it differently now that I’m older,” he says. “And now that I’ve actually been a biker on the run for a crime I didn’t commit, that adds a lot of depth to it too. I had no idea what that was like back then.”
You know what I did in my early 20s? Not make Full Throttle. Learn more about how Tim outclassed me by reading the full article.
Source: PC Gamer
The long-awaited Psychonauts 2 has exited pre-production and has now unambiguously entered that rarefied air of honest-to-George production. I, of course, totally know what that means, but if you don't, here's Tim and project leader Zak McClendon to lay it out:
Double Fine also represented themselves at E3 last week. In a noble rejection of hubris, we held back and let the other gaming sites cover that. But we should point out that during a panel he hosted with Jack Back, Tim asserted that Brutal Legend 2 will happen "someday," noting that it would be "expensive." Fortunately, I was able to interpret this signal correctly, and what was once Remi's plasma is now the first angel investment for Brutal Legend 2.
Source: Gamespot